1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephone system such as an electronic private branch exchange which accommodates key telephone sets, and more particularly to a telephone system for providing users with a variety of telephone services.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Telephone systems such as electronic private branch exchanges employ multifunction telephone sets connected as exchange telephone terminals, and service functions are assigned to function keys of the multifunction telephone sets for providing users with various telephone services. When a user operates a function key corresponding to a desired one of available exchange services, the user can access the desired exchange service.
Function keys are set to respective service functions in a manner unique to each of the telephone terminals. There are certain available telephone services in which inherent information used in those telephone services differs from telephone terminal to telephone terminal. For example, the user of a telephone terminal which is allotted to that user may assign a one-touch dial key to a certain function key, and may register a desired number as the telephone number of a party. Therefore, each user can set inherent information on his own telephone terminal and can access an exchange service through a simple operation from his own telephone terminal. However, when each user uses a telephone terminal other than his own telephone terminal, e.g., a telephone terminal in a conference room or a telephone set shared by many people as in a dormitory telephone system, the user cannot operate the telephone terminal simply using inherent information or set an inherent function key.
Consequently, the conventional telephone systems pose no problems insofar as long as telephone terminals are assigned to individuals and allow users to set inherent information. If a telephone terminal or set of the conventional telephone systems is shared by many individuals, however, no inherent information can be set by users or a set of function keys cannot be assigned to certain service functions on that shared telephone terminal. Therefore, users of the shared telephone terminal have to access exchange services without relying on a simple operation which would otherwise be available on individual's telephone terminals for those exchange services.